The former hierarchies of the journalism industry have crumbled by the weight of the digital realm, to be replaced by blurry parallel relations between journalists and readers.

The result is evident in the record 10,600 readers who participated in the Toronto Star‘s annual “You be the editor” survey. Administered by the Star’s public editor, Kathy English, the “highly unscientific, overly simplistic survey” served to provide insight into readers’ perspectives on the judgments made on to-publish-or-not-to-publish over the past year.

For example, 60 percent of readers voted that a cartoon presenting Toronto Mayor John Tory in bare-butt pants should have been published, which English now also agrees with. Fifty-five percent of the readers would have also made the decision to publish the Charlie Hebdo cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammed. English disagrees: “it would be offensive and hurtful to Muslims in this community.”

Online journalism, in its many forms, has created a system of interaction that enables and encourages collaboration between reader and editor to discover, distribute and discuss the elements that create the best possible version of a news story. Today, the function of readers has surpassed that of being an audience, with technology fuelling their willingness to be heard and their capacity to be listened to, even on core matters of journalism ethics that the industry continues to debate.

These include the examples English collated in her survey, especially those about issues relating to mental health stories, as shown in the image below.

“Neither of th[e]se references is in line with media best practices for writing about mental health,” writes English, “and, to my mind, neither should have been published in the Star.” I agree.

In fairness, English does recognize that “newsroom debate about what to publish is always deeper and more wide-ranging than what this light exercise in journalistic decision-making can depict.”

Yet in the digital age of journalism, what is considered good, thorough and balanced journalistic practice is often at odds with reader perceptions and expectations. That’s okay if journalists are aware that, while the hierarchy may have crumbled, they still make the final call on how to best tell the story to the reader, who can only play the role of editor. Survey results show that readers were aligned with the newsroom’s judgments in 12 of the 18 matters in question. I’m unsure what to conclude from that.

A day before the survey results were published, Mitch Potter, the Star’s foreign affairs writer, wrote how the decision to publish certain images of Syrian kids in conflict zones is important in defining whether the reader will perceive them with empathy or as furthering propaganda. “You, friends, are now the filter, every bit—if not more so—than those of us who used to be,” concludes Potter.

That’s a scary thought. The power of the reader is strong. The force of journalism needs to find a way to stay in line with, if not above, that.

“If you talk about what used to be, we’re going to be what used to be.”

That’s what Martin Baron, executive editor of the Washington Post, tells his staff.

Last week, the Canadian Journalism Foundation held its last talk of the year at Ryerson University, where the National Post’s Anne Marie Owens interviewed Baron about the Washington Post’s digital transformation. So far, Baron’s plans seemed to have worked. More people accessed the Washington Post’s website in October than The New York Times—and that’s saying something.

Baron’s arrival isn’t the only thing that sparked a move towards digital, though. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post in 2013, giving the paper time and money to experiment with digital products, sparking a series of changes in the Washington Post’s daily operations.

1. Change in the newsroom:

Baron says the Washington Post took a lot of steps to create a digital culture in the newsroom. Some of those were physical, like trying out new seating arrangements in the newsroom; others had a lot more to do with mindset. “Everyone is our competition,” Baron said. That means anything on the web, not just news organizations. Baron says he only spends 10 minutes talking about the newspaper in his daily afternoon meetings; the rest is spent on online content.

But where does all this online content come from?

2. What happens at night:

A group of young journalists spend their nights at the Post every day. From 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., they’re looking for stories in the nooks and crannies of the internet. By the time morning comes, these stories have already been posted, and they often become the basis for a bigger story.

Often, the staff will have found someone who wants to tell their story, but instead of sending a reporter out to cover that story, they’ll work with the writer to edit and vet the story until it’s ready for publication. Then, they’ll slap on a headline like “This is what happened when I drove my Mercedes to pick up food stamps.” Sometimes, those stories lead to deeper investigations. A story from a Bill Cosby accuser, for example, led a team at the Post into a 10-day investigation.

3. Wheels on luggage:

To Baron, none of this is salvation. “I remember when the tablet was supposed to save the industry,” he said. “We need to get past the idea that this one thing is going to save the industry.”

Instead, Baron wants to focus on the “wheels on luggage”. Yes, we’ve put a man on the moon, he says, but we put wheels on luggage—and only one of those things affected people’s experiences. That’s what he wants to do: he wants to focus on the smaller details like the video or graphic that adds a little more to the story. But there’s always resistance and mourning in the newsroom. Resistance to the new stuff and mourning for what’s gone or what could soon be lost.

What’s missing? “Customer or readers?” Owens asks. Baron says he’s gotten flak for using “customers,” but to him, they’re the same.

Throughout the talk, Baron seemed more like a businessman than anything. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; it’s just something to think about.

The little ghosts of Snapchat have been taking over my Twitter feed this last month.

We’ve talked about how Snapchat is being used for a kind of citizen journalism. But not much has been said about how professional journalists and news outlets are using the app—at least not in Canada.

These little white ghosts on my Twitter feed have replaced the logos of news outlets like Huffington Post Canada and CBC Toronto, promoting their Snapchat coverage on Twitter.

Despite the publicity these organizations have given to their Snapchat accounts, they seem to still be experimenting with the tool, and each one of them seems to be using it a little differently.

The Toronto Star, for example, seems to be doing more basic coverage, like snaps of their front cover or notes about the weather.

Screenshots from the Toronto Star’s Snapchat on October 28.

On the other hand, Global News has taken to posting their headlines in a lighthearted style. Instead of images, they use more emojis. They also ask direct followers to go to their website for more on a specific story.

Screenshots from Global News’ Snapchat on October 28.

Still, more dramatically different are the posts Canadian Press reporter David Friend used to cover the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The coverage was much more personal and more in the style of something you would see on a video blog. Most of the snaps involve Friend talking to the camera about his day at TIFF, creating a relationship between Friend and the viewers that is not the stiff one of reporter to audience. For example, throughout the coverage, Friend mentions that he’s not interested in certain parties or that he was hardly able to keep his eyes open on the last day.

CBC Toronto is another outlet that’s been experimenting with Snapchat. Associate producer Nicole Brockbank says that one way they’ve used Snapchat is to cover Blue Jays games. A reporter went to the game and took videos and pictures of big moments. The reporter also used Snapchat to take casual streeters of people at the game. In that way, Snapchat seems to be useful for providing the experience of a specific moment or mood that the audience isn’t there to see. In fact, Huffington Post Canada covered a Raptors game the very same way.

Brockbank says that the CBC Toronto digital team is trying out the medium in different ways, but that ultimately, whatever reporters do with Snapchat, they would likely use it to stitch a narrative together.

It’s clear that Canadian media is toying with Snapchat, but it’s still unclear how big of a role it will play in future coverage. Brockbank says that she sees potential in using Snapchat to cover news in the field at some point in the future. The reporter would be on scene, take a couple of shots and provide an update on camera. But as always, time would be a factor. Would a reporter have time to cover a scene with all the existing methods as well as Snapchat?

So far, Snapchat doesn’t seem to be a place to cover every type of story, but the stories that do get covered there are being presented in a different context that’s often more lighthearted, personal and about the moment.

The RRJ sat down with Emma Prestwich from the Huffingtonpost.com to hear her most bizarre moment in her career.

This is one you don’t want to miss—it includes a human head!

By Arielle Piat-Sauvé

Guy Crevier knew something needed to change when he compared the drop in newspaper revenue to the aging baby-boomer population. The president and publisher of La Presse suspected that as his core readership aged, newspaper sales could decrease significantly. Fearing it was only a matter of time before the traditional newspaper model collapsed, Crevier decided to endorse a new approach, relying only on advertiser revenue. In April 2013, the company launched its La Presse+ tablet app in an attempt to reshape the way its readers consume news.

The goal was simple: create a platform that would increase audience engagement and reach. Crevier, who is also president of Gesca, a subsidiary of Power Corporation that publishes six French papers in Quebec and Le Droit in Ottawa, wanted to work with an existing digital platform. So La Presse approached Apple in 2010, a few months before the technology company was set to release its first iPad. Then Gesca invested three years of research and $40 million into the new app. The 130-year-old newspaper’s headquarters in Old Montreal were also redesigned to include television studios and wall-mounted video displays to show the iPad app.

Last May, during Power Corp.’s annual meeting in Montreal, co-CEOs André and Paul Desmarais Jr. confirmed their plans to phase out newspaper print editions. Gesca believes this tablet technology and new business model will save its newspapers. Today, 40 percent of La Presse’s revenue derives from the app. The interactive platform is designed to increase readership and, in turn, attract more ad dollars. The danger is that without money coming from circulation, the pressure to change editorial content to please the last paying customers—the advertisers—becomes even greater.

La Presse+ seeks to attract a broad and engaged audience that is also willing to interact with its mostly national multimedia ads. Video and interactive storytelling are replacing black newspaper ink. So far, the results are encouraging. Over the last 18 months, La Presse+ reached 600,000 downloads, with an average 160,000 daily views. The average reader spends 44 minutes on the app during the week and 73 minutes on Saturday. Half the app’s downloads are by readers who aren’t subscribed to the paper’s print edition. While newspapers across the country cut staff, La Presse hired several new journalists specializing in multimedia, video and graphic design.

Providing readers with free news is an essential element to La Presse+ and Jacques Nantel, a marketing professor at the University of Montreal, believes this is a smart gamble. “They started with the assumption that no matter what the platform will be, advertising now will be your sole source of revenue,” he says. “This is where the clientele is.” The papers aren’t gone yet, but when they are, Crevier hopes all the advertisers will move to the digital platform.

But others remain skeptical of the model’s sustainability in the long run. Marc-François Bernier, a journalism professor at the University of Ottawa, fears relying exclusively on advertising revenue will force the paper to alter its content to focus on entertainment instead of news and information. “When your source of financial revenue relies too heavily on advertisers, this undoubtedly leads to weaker and less independent content, more susceptibility to pressure from advertisers,” he says. Bernier points to new commercials that feature a man and a woman flirting while surfing La Presse+ as an example of advertisers influencing the way consumers perceive the app.

Meanwhile, La Presse’s sister papers in towns across Quebec continue to wait for further information from Gesca about where they fit into this new digital model. At Quebec City’s Le Soleil, the atmosphere remains optimistic about what these changes could mean for their paper. Pierre-Paul Noreau, now the deputy editor and managing editor, remembers when he first entered that newsroom 37 years ago as a 22-year-old reporter. Back then, the paper had 150 journalists instead of the 65 it has today. But Noreau isn’t nostalgic for the glory days and he believes in the La Presse+ model, even if this means trading in his former readers for new ones.

Although no official decisions have been made regarding Gesca’s other papers, Noreau’s ideal scenario would be for his Quebec City newsroom to produce local content, while being part of the larger La Presse+ app that would include tabs for the different newspapers. However, Le Soleil and Gesca’s other papers may not have the digital and financial resources required to produce the content for an app.

Other papers are taking notice. The Toronto Star recently became the first newspaper to announce plans to release its own tablet app based on the La Presse+ platform technology. That will happen next fall and the paper plans to remove all existing digital paywalls. This partnership between the two media outlets will provide advertisers with joint marketing opportunities to reach both French and English audiences.

Yet, most newspapers remain reluctant to adopt the La Presse+ model. Le Devoir, an independent French language paper in Montreal, was the first in Canada to create a paywall on its website back in 2002. Publisher Bernard Descôteaux also feels the pressure to shift to a new digital strategy in order to survive, but insists that model won’t limit his paper’s app from including rich content, different from its print counterpart. Newspapers opting for a paywall are hoping to convince their readers that quality journalism comes at a price.

Today, Crevier admits he doesn’t read a single print newspaper or watch the evening news, but he says he’s never consumed as much information as he does now. Although there are definite risks associated with being first, La Presse+ is his attempt at creating a new sustainable newspaper model. This tablet technology is also a way of competing with a whole new realm of multimedia platforms, for broader audience reach and more advertiser dollars.